Best Budget Drill Press Harbor Freight Vs WEN 

Even though this vid was made back in 2019, it still allowed me to see a good comparison between Wen and HF.

I just received the WEN for Christmas. It seems well made. Glad I got it. Thanks for taking the time to post your comparisons.

I checked around and finally ordered a Wen From Amazon.It was easy to assemble and ,after I bolted to my bench, it ran quiet and smooth.I think I made a good choice.Thanks again for your video.

Thanks for this video.I was all set to go to H.F. for a drill press,but I think I will shop around.

Another couple of tests: Check for slop in the chuck spindles and the quill, to see how much "skate" you get at the tip of the drill bit. Another test, is to test the "run out" in the chuck. Just chuck a straight rod, and turn it on, and see how far off center the tip wobbles. That's my biggest test of a good quality drill of any kind, weather a press, or hand held. A lot of that vibration could be reduced, if you could balance the pulleys, and the motor rotor. Quality belts also help.(I like the WEN the best)

I had a Craftsman still press that after 20 years had enough. I bought the Wen, (NOT WIN 😉) and it works really well! I have a two way table on it that makes it easy to precisely locate my holes, I had to give up some depth but for what it’s designed to do for about $80 it’s a winner in the home hobby shop.

Harbor Freight. You get what you pay for. I keep my tools forever so I rather pay a higher price to get something reliable and long lasting. I bought a Skil drill press for about 120 and it has lasted for over 5 years now with light use.

My bench top drill is the same as. Your old one but as branded Pro Tool. I was in the middle of a project with my late 40s early 50s Craftsman and the pressed rod on one side of the motor mount came lose. My $20 second hand bench top press came to the rescue and 30 minutes later I had the rod drilled, tapped, bolted on and was back to the original project. The best part was providing to my now ex-wife that it was a good idea to have both a bench and floor model drillpress. My benchtop has some bearing rattle as of late. Time for me to check RU-vid for some rebuild videos.

One feature of the Wen not mentioned is that the on-off switch is an emergency, safety feature. Pushing it in turns off the press. That could be done with any part of the hand, upper arm, elbow.

I'm so glad I got the wen 10" for Xmas, it's a real nice solid machine and very quiet. It was more expensive than the 8" but when you have it in the shop it don't run or look like a piece of junk. Very satisfied!!! Thanks for your review

This review makes me thankful that I bought an 8” Delta drill press new in the early ‘90s (it was about $90 back then) and a solid used 1978 12” model from Taiwan in 2009. Both are very smooth and very quiet.

I decided I needed a drill press for a project and first considered HF, but after looking at the details, specs and reviews, settled on a WEN, but went with a 10 inch, variable speed model. Purchased from WEN, but through ebay. Super happy with it, but did replace the chuck with a keyless one. Was so impressed with the build quality, that I bought a bench grinder and a vise from them also. All of them seem very solid. Not US or German made quality, but very solid for the money.

I have WEN 12" variable speed drill press and I am very satisfied with it.

I also bought a WEN at Menards and I love it.

Have had amazing results with my WEN, same as yours. Love it!

I'm just using it to mill some personal lowers. I think the WEN will do great. Thanks

Thanks. I watched this in HF, I agree that their tabletop drill presses are not what they used to be.

I have your old drill press...the value craft. I picked it up cheap at a yard sale and it has been a great piece of equipment. I like it 👌

Sad that pretty much all tool manufacturing that was in the USA has gone overseas for cheap labor and also cheap quality. I use to have nice Sears tools, a table saw and a band saw that was made in the USA. They were quality built. I didn't mind paying the USA price for USA quality. But now it's gone and it probably will never ever come back. America was once a nation of production, now it's a nation of consumption! All three of your drill presses are foreign made. I'm curious, were there any that you looked at that were USA made? If there were, what brand were they and how much did they cost?

I am a retired Woodworker that had over 20 years in Architectual Woodworking professionally and Woodworking has been my hobby for over 35 years overall this new generationWen tools for the money all consistently come in as being decent quality Ironically about 15 years ago. I stopped by my Moms for dinner on a Friday night and when she pulled in she asked if I would grab the boz in her trunk she bought on her lunch break that day to my surprise it was the Harbor Freight Drill press you have in the video as my Mom does build Minarure Doll house furniture and items in a Hobby room i built her Specifically for the hobby and she thought the drill press would be a good tool to have set up ! At dinner my Mom asked what my plans were for the Weekend and I laughed that I’m going into the Shop to do some paperwork and to use. One of our Drill presses to cut 500 Mahogany Bungs. I needed for the Antique Chris Craft Cabin Cruiser i was restoring as we had several older Rockwell floor standing drill presses. In the shop and my “Hoard “ of Mahogany was stashed in a safe place inside our 100 thousand Square foot shop well my Mom knew the shop was a decent drive and she asked me if i wanted to take her new drill press home to use instead of driving the distance to the shop so i thought hey thats not a bad idea i think i have enough Wood at home to do what i want and i have the plug cutter I’m going to use anyway so that was my new plan except when i did unbox the drill. I wasnt very impressed The wobble or runout in the Chuck was close to 3/8ths. Of a inch by eye i fooled with the damn thing for a couple of hours to get it half decent and the power was just not enough to do what i wanted i put everything back in the box and told my Mom that she should return this and Ill help her find a better one for her needs which i did wind up. Finding a older Craftsman 12” that was never abused and had been in some Old Timers Home shop for years my son who was only about 9 or 10 at that time thought it was real cool that he might have the only Grandmother in his school that got. Bandsaw and a Drill Press for Christmas LOL BTW. I bought her a new Skill Bandsaw bench top model and way after the fact. I realized she really could had gotten by with a Scroll saw instead as she is afraid of the Band saw and her Safety of using it which is weird to me as i pushed a lot of projects rough way bigger Bandsaws then hers and never felt intimidated by them

Thanks for this. I picked up the Harbor Freight model from my local store last night and the table actually bent when I was installing the chuck. I was really surprised by how flimsy the pressed metal table and base were. I returned it and will probably pick up the WEN - glad to hear that there are more than just cosmetic differences between the two!

The Wen is no longer a low priced drill press but This video clearly proves the logic behind WEN increasing the price as it is a twice the quality drill press of the Harbor freight and I own both… Very similar WEN drill presses are now $400+…. This unit was replaced by the 4208T at $127 as of Dec 28, 2021… The harbor freight is listed online on their website for $79 although you can get the coupons to get up to 20% off

I actually like my HF drill press. Bolted down its much quieter than in your video. I generally run in low gear on a press also. I believe yours were set to high speed which is much harder on bits. Slow and steady wins the race everytime on drill bits my friend.

So glad I watched this vidio. I bought the Harbor freight drill press and had to return it. The plastic actually broke the firsts time I used it. So I ordered a WEN from Home Depot. The quality of the WEN is far superior. The cost was a little more, but well worth the extra $$.

Thanks for the video!, have been thinking about these two for the past few days and now have made my decision to go with the wen

Nicely done. $80 bucks, and delivered to my door? Awesome. Thank you

Aluminium pulleys are great ! They actually stop a lot of the vibration from unbalanced metal pulleys. Most vibration comes from the belt whip. A guide or tensioner should eliminate vibration.

Wranglerstar just did a review of the WEN and gave it a similar review. Certainly not the best out there, but a good value for the money.

I have the same model. Almost every video says what you say. Well made, and the little things like the chuck holder, cast table, metal cover, etc. It's a fine little press for my use. If you want a work of art, and a machine that is precise, get a high-end heavy press. With care and maintenance, it's like you said...it will function well for years to come. Instant LIKE and greetings from Alaska.

Every single Harber Freight power too I ever bought had dry barrings. Take it apart and lubricate everything that needs it. Pull the dust seals from the barrings and pack with good quality grease. This will not only make it run smoother but last a lot longer as well.

As a lot of people are say I to was going to get a drill press fro H.F. but you have changed my mind so thank you for the video . I've had a wen miter saw for years and used it a lot and still works great . So the wen it is for the drill press . Thanks again .

Thanks. Learning new skills on a budget.

Dont know how i stumbled upon this, ut just showed up in my feed, but i have been looking at those 2 for a cheap project and couldnt really see a difference between them, this was a perfect video! Thanks!

You *can* judge a book by its cover; fit and finish is a valid indicator of expected performance, excellent and thoughtful review, thanks.

Man, I'm glad I watched this video before I bought another HF press. I had an older 8 inch HF drill press and it had cast iron table and base, but it got stolen. I didn't know they had changed them,.. now I will spend the extra $20 on the WEN. I recently bought a scroll saw from WEN to replace an older one from HF, and I was really impressed by how much better the WEN was than the old one from HF. I've been eyeballing the spiral cut planer from WEN too,.. looks pretty nice for the $$$.

Can the WEN handle an 3 inch fortsner bit?

I've got a wen sliding miter saw it's great. I searched the net and found both drill presses. I think I will buy the wen thanks

If you want smoother running on any drill press, replace the V belt with round section belting (like a big O Ring).

To those in 2023 basing their decision on this review, HF now carries a "Bauer" branded 8" drill press that appears to be made to the same specs in the same factory. I picked one up 2 days ago for $79.

If not for his voice, I'd think this was DSP reviewing drill presses (in the entirely mythical reality where he'd event remotely know how to use a power tool lol). The camera rocking is even present (though nowhere as extreme).

I have a generic one like your original, mine is about three years old. I couldn’t be happier and I’ve never thought I must upgrade at any point. However, the build quality doesn’t look as good as yours, for instance my depth gauge bracket is plastic and part of the guard. It’s certainly better than the Harbour Freight model which sounded awful. I thought there might have been a fault with it. A brilliant video for those buying the all important drill press which is a tool they’ll be using for almost any metal work project. Unfortunately we don’t have Harbour Freight here in the U.K...yet!

Thanks I just ordered the WEN!!

I have an older (at least 20 years) HF 8" press - predecessor of the current one. Mine has two plastic parts...the handle grips and on/off switch. The table is cast steel and the motor mount and fan cover are heavy gauge metal. The pulleys are steel, too. No slop at all in the spindle. Not sure how much it weighs but it is not lightweight. Sounds like the older HF drill presses were made a lot better. I have a HF bench grinder the same age as the press. It has a pretty good weight to it, too.

I just got a Wen, and couldn't be happier. I got the same model as yours, but mines a lot quieter, and I haven't bolted or clamped it down. I was considering Harbor Freight, but when I looked them over at the store, I decided to spend a little more and get something better. Wasn't even going to give it a try, even though for my purposes, it likely would have been sufficient.

Thanks for this video. I'm in the market for a low end drill press and had decided on the WEN but wasn't positive. Had considered Harbor Freight and Ryobi. I went with WEN.

I wonder how the Harbor Freight 12 Speed compares to the WEN 5 Speed? I've always heard that the HF 12 Speed is the one to get over the HF 5 Speed. Also the vibration can be dampened quite a bit by filling the vertical support tube with sand.

Pretty sure the WEN is the same as a Grizzly G0925. PS< With your older model you bought at Ace Hardware, If you take a rubber coated magnet, or just a regular magnet, maybe putting on a small piece of grip tape over the magnets chuck key side, it makes a nicer chuck key holder than Velcro, if the magnet is N42 or better the size of a penny, it'll never fall off from vibration. Using grip tape on the chuck key side makes a lesser bond line, so the magnet stays on the drill press, a dab of glue works to mate the magnet to the drill press if you don't have grip tape. This retired aviation engineer loves magnets. Thanks for making this comparison video, it's surely helped a lot of people.

My issue with these small drill presses are the speed selection. There is nothing I drill that I ever needed 3,000 rpm. On the other side of things, I more often need something well under 500 rpm. Larger hole saws, forstner bits, circle cutters, etc don't work with high rpms and can be dangerous or ruin bits from excessive heat.

I just bought a blue version of that harbor freight from Amazon, didn't realize what junk I was buying. Wish they had that wen in stock.

I hate to break it to you, but that's actually a THIRTY year old drill press. I know, time flies and they don't make them like they used to. 😥

I bought my son the harbor freight drill press . After watching this video I went with it because I got a 2 year warranty free .

I just bought the WEN a week before seeing your video. Glad I made the right choice. Great review, thanks!

Ive drilled thousands of holes with My HF drill press and it is as quiet or quieter than that wen. You probably got a bad one.

I went up a size and got the Wen 4210T. It was $163 on ebay last year when I got it. I'm pleased with it.

Nice review. as with any job, it requires the right tool. Using a small press for big jobs, you will end up with a broken heap. You 1989 drill is still in great shape and a testimony your understanding of it's limitations. So that legitimizes your review for the WEN.

Thank you. I was looking into buying the WEN and now I think I am pretty sure that I will. Thanks again for sharing!

That emergency button on the WEN may save some scalps. Only thing missing is a decent light shining from above & behind, out of the way.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

Lots of side play in the HF which can be adjusted with the set screw on the side. For run of the mill drilling, they are ok, but if you need absolute precise drilling, step up to Jet etc.

Harbor freight is good for light duty only. Over the course of building a deck with a friend, he had a Chicago cordless drill and wrenches. The drill burned out on the first day and I broke my knuckle when one of the wrenches snapped. I don't fool around with harbor freight after having surgery on my hand.

HF has my vote, can't beat the price and if it's bad they replace or refund with no problem, but I've had good luck with all their tools, and I abuse them.

well you helped me make my mind up on which one I'm getting, thanks.

How's the drill bit run-out on the Wen vs HF? Thanks for the comparison!

good walk thru thanks from Austin, Texas 🌺

I'm looking at replacing my Delta benchtop press since I can't find a replacement motor that'll fit it without me doing mods to it. So now the thing I think about when looking at powered equipment is whether a replacement motor can be (a) found, and (b) will be it more than I paid for the press as new. How's the Wen holding up? Thanks.

You forgot that you always get 20% off the HF one.

I'm going to take your advice and recommendation and save up for the WEN 10" Drill press. I hoping to team it up with the 10" bandsaw also by WEN. Do you have any thoughts about the bandsaws? Thanks for sharing your thoughts and videos Rodney

I picked up the h f drill press a couple of weeks ago for some light hobby work. Its sucks. I could not drill through a 1.5 inch bit of maple with a 3/8 bit without getting the bit stuck. So I had to dip the bit in and out or the wood smoked. Tried different speeds , different bits same thing. I tried a 2 inch boring bit on some drift wood. and at any speed hi or lo it got stuck . It will drill with a 1/8 drill bit so far.

oh hey the old one you have is the same as the old one at my dads

idk.. coupon online says $55 on the harbor freight unit right now. the wen while seemingly better on outward appearance probably isn't that much better when you get into it. i don't mind a rougher surface if was machined to the right tolerance. dull bits will do that. bit material and feed rate is also a factor. cbn even does that to varying degrees on some of the programs at work (i run a cnc machine). at either price point, you're not going to get a high quality item. i'm thinking i should prolly look for second hand or throw more money at this tool. i don't think i'd use it enough to justify the price for a quality unit while i'm unsure about either on the lower end.

I have the harbor freight drill press the motor overheats way too soon I plan on getting a used vintage one

Very nicely done 👍😊. I came across your video at the perfect time, I've been looking at both of them. I actually have the HF one from a neighbor for $30 to hold me over until I can get a better one. I actually want the 10" WEN and after watching your video, I

Hey, thanks for this detailed video. I'm about to purchase my first Drill Press. I was looking at HF as to the price but decided to shop around. I saw the WEN one at Home Depot and was curious. Has great reviews but cost more than the HF one. I'm sold and getting the WEN.

Excellent review. Thanks

Grizzly also has one, that seems like nothing to write home about. I have an old Craftsman 10 inch model at work, which looks a lot like the 8" one you have that is 30 years old. When you go to this size, you will have a rack and crank to adjust table height, which smaller ones usually lack. Overall, I am looking for a compact QUALITY drill press for my van.

Don't let the cheap color fool you. Been researching drill presses and 90% of reviews came out positive that were not sponsored. I keep hearing reviewers "Push" Harbor Freight but almost everyone says their crap. Tools can be repainted, as long as it is built better, I'm in.

Have had the same cheapo chinese-made HF press for over 15 years now, originally paid ~$35, been banged around, survived 4 moves, even been out in the elements now and then, and aside from replacing some screws, it still does the job. Most 'home mechanics' just need a useful, affordable and reasonably reliable tool... not a work of art.

Sorry, but if you look closely at the WEN, the sleeve that mounts the table to the column is Aluminum, it WILL break, mine has twice! And on WEN's website the part is no longer available, it is obsolete!! On a drill press bought in 2019.

Great video! Thanks

My WEN (new) is NoT capable of handing a one inch bit ....just get stock.. It's going through the garbage pretty soon....

nice review. thanks.

how much does the table flex, will the table even stay level? I made a new clamp and table for my cheap drill press.

I got mine (HF) for $59.00 or so. The plastic depth stop bracket broke the second day. But other than that, it does what I need it for now.

I thought you had a blender full of marbles running on the bench when you turned the HF model on haha

ig that was the only problem with the older bench press i would have fixed and not bought an other one lol

Thanks! This is exactly the info I was looking for.

No offence, but were buying a 100 dollar drill press were expecting it to work and that's about it. Were looking for details like torque and amp draw, downforce of the chuck, etc. If it sounds and feels like a cat being stepped on while it's running, that's something I've already come to terms with given the price tag.

Great comparison. Very helpful.

great video. you helped make up my mind. harbor freight kinda blows without the 20 percent couons anymore.

I have a HF Drill Press from about a decade or more ago, it seems to be nothing like the new one and it literally runs so smooth that it's a joy to listen to. I still remember the price too, $90 regularly on sale for $39.99 with a 20% coupon. So about $32 plus tax. Never had a bit of trouble with it in all these years and still sounds like the finest machinery around. Damn shame they are so cheaply made now.

Great video!!! I was looking at the Harbor Freight Drill Press and then saw the Wen on Home Depot and it was cheaper. I also get a 10% discount at HD because I'm a vet. Sold me.

I'm sorry, but a lot of what you said seemed very superficial, more in line on your personal preference on Aesthetics. Which is fine i guess, but the real question is how do they compare in performance?

How do you call this a comparison video and not even use either of them? Thats the most important part!

Thank you!

Good review....thx!

The harbor freight sounds like rocks in a hub cap. Good video👍

I've drilled billions of holes too

With HF you win some, you lose some. If I was a professional doing it day in and day out 8 hours a day I'd steer clear of HF, but given the fact that I pick up my reciprocating saw maybe once or twice a year, I enjoy the HF tools. That said, I am working on building out a wood working area in my garage and will be opting for higher quality tools. Thanks for a good review. I'll be sure to start my drill press research with the Wen model as the low end and forget about the HF drill press.

Your model drill press, I just bought a used one. It wobbles bad. What style if spindle does it use? Do you know the brand/manufacturer?

crazy how much inflation has kicked in since this was made